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HMS ''Ark Royal'' (pennant number 91) was an aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy that served during the Second World War. Designed in 1934 to fit the restrictions of the Washington Naval Treaty, ''Ark Royal'' was built by Cammell Laird and Company Ltd. at Birkenhead, England, and completed in November 1938. Her design differed from previous aircraft carriers. ''Ark Royal'' was the first ship on which the hangars and flight deck were an integral part of the hull, instead of an add-on or part of the superstructure. Designed to carry a large number of aircraft, she had two hangar deck levels. She served during a period that first saw the extensive use of naval air power; a number of carrier tactics were developed and refined aboard ''Ark Royal''. ''Ark Royal'' served in some of the most active naval theatres of the Second World War. She was involved in the first aerial and U-boat kills of the war, operations off Norway, the search for the German battleship , and the Malta Convoys. ''Ark Royal'' survived several near misses and gained a reputation as a 'lucky ship'. The Germans incorrectly reported her as sunk on multiple occasions. She was torpedoed on 13 November 1941 by the German submarine and sank the following day. Her sinking was the subject of several inquiries; investigators were keen to know how the carrier was lost, in spite of efforts to save the ship and tow her to the naval base at Gibraltar. They found that several design flaws contributed to the loss, which were rectified in new British carriers. Her wreck was discovered by a BBC crew in December 2002, approximately from Gibraltar. ==Design== In 1923, the Admiralty prepared a 10-year building programme which included an aircraft carrier and 300 aircraft for the Fleet Air Arm. The economic downturn following the First World War caused it to be postponed. In 1930, the Director of Naval Construction, Sir Arthur Johns, began to update the plans for the carrier by incorporating recently developed technology.〔 His aim was to increase the number of aircraft carried by shortening the landing and take-off distances of aircraft by using arrestor gear and compressed steam catapults respectively, which would make more deck space available for storage and aircraft preparation.〔〔 Along with the inclusion of two hangar decks, this allowed ''Ark Royal'' to carry up to 72 aircraft, although the development of larger and heavier aircraft during the carrier's construction meant that the actual number carried was between 50 and 60. The hangar decks were placed inside the hull, thus benefiting from the protection of the belt armour.〔 Three lifts moved aircraft between the hangars and the flight deck.〔 Another feature was the length and height of the flight deck. At , the flight deck was longer than the keel; the latter dictated by the length of Royal Navy dry-docks in Gibraltar and Malta.〔 Because hangar decks were within the hull, the flight deck rose to above the waterline.〔 The Washington and London Naval Treaties—which restricted warship tonnage for a number of the Great Powers—were to expire at the end of 1936. With a potential naval arms race developing between Britain, Japan and Italy, the British government sought a second treaty, which included limiting the maximum displacement of an aircraft carrier to . ''Ark Royal'' would have to fit this anticipated limit; to conserve weight, armour plating was limited to the belt, engine rooms, and magazines, while welding instead of riveting 65% of the hull saved .〔 Installation of an armoured flight deck was not possible, as the weight would have placed ''Ark Royal'' above the proposed limit, while reducing her endurance and stability.〔 The ship was designed with a three layer side protection system based upon a void-liquid-void scheme very similar to that used on the ''King George V''-class battleships, and was designed to protect against torpedoes with up to a warhead. The ship was fitted with six boilers, which powered three Parsons geared turbines. The turbines were connected via three driveshafts to three bronze propellers in diameter, to produce a maximum theoretical speed of .〔 Speed was important, as with catapults and arrestor gear, ''Ark Royal'' would have to turn into the wind to launch and recover aircraft. To avoid endangering other ships with the frequent course changes associated with flight operations, ''Ark Royal'' would have to break away from accompanying ships, and catch up on completion. Additionally, as the carrier was not armed for ship-to-ship combat, speed was her main protection against enemy warships.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「HMS Ark Royal (91)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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